Are hot dogs as bad as cigarettes?

Hot dogs, yes your kid’s favorite food, have come under fire by an advocacy group that promotes a vegan diet, preventative medicine and alternatives to animal research.

Do hot dogs cause cancer? One advocacy group thinks so.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), based in Washington, D.C., put up a billboard suggesting hot dogs cause cancer near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway reading: “Hot Dogs Can Wreck Your Health.” This messaging appeared next to an image of hot dogs in a cigarette pack along with a link to cancerproject.org, a website sponsored by PCRM.

As you can imagine, the wiener-loving NASCAR fans weren’t pleased.

So what’s so bad about hot dogs–America’s favorite food?

“A hot dog a day could send you to an early grave,” says PCRM nutrition education director Susan Levin, M.S., R.D. “Processed meats like hot dogs can increase your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and various types of cancer. Like cigarettes, hot dogs should come with a warning label that helps racing fans and other consumers understand the health risk.”

This statement from PCRM might be extreme but there is real evidence that hot dogs aren’t entirely healthy. Several studies have found that processed meats can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Many processed meats contain sodium nitrate and this has been linked to an increased risk of cancer. The American Institute for Cancer Research has found that eating one hot dog a day raises the risk of colorectal cancer, on average, by 21 percent.

So that’s one side of the story. How does the meat industry feel about all of this?

“This is an absurd claim,” Janet Riley, president of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council, told CBS News. “Trying to link a food product that has clear nutritional value with a product like cigarettes, which have no redeeming qualities, is inflammatory and alarmist. This is an animal rights group that wants to take away your choices.”

What should parents with hot dog-loving kids take away from all of this? As a parent myself I plan to continue as we always have. We eat the occasional hot dog at the ballpark and around the campfire, and when possible we buy those that are nitrate free. If you’re feeding your kid three hot dogs a day, you might want to mix things up with some PB&J, fruits and veggies, and unprocessed meats.